In this two-part series, Pretty Good Podcast tackles how and why these mainstream narratives perpetuate discrimination against marginalised religious communities, and what can be done to address the issue. Dr. Samsul Maarif, head of the graduate school program at Universitas Gadjah Mada’s Center for Religion and Cross-cultural Studies, expounds on the politics of religion that fuels the stigma against indigenous religions. Devina Heriyanto, a former Jakarta Post journalist and now Membership Manager of Project Multatuli, explains how news outlets’ online business models shape and propagate harmful and oversimplified narratives.

The episode is part of the Association for Progressive Communications’ (APC) Challenge project with the aim of “Challenging hate narratives and violations of freedom of religion and expression online in Asia”.

Read the blog post here. 

In this episode of Pretty Good Podcast, Imam Ardhianto, lecturer and chair of the University of Indonesia’s Media, Culture, and Research Center for Anthropological Studies, discusses the transformation of religious social media movements in Indonesia and how they shaped the socio-political landscape of the country, adapting into hyperlocal spaces online and offline.

The episode is part of the Association for Progressive Communications’ (APC) Challenge project, with the aim of “Challenging hate narratives and violations of freedom of religion and expression online in Asia”.

In this episode of Pretty Good Podcast, two South Asian contributors of EngageMedia’s Pandemic of Control series elaborate on how the digital technologies used for pandemic management have infringed on human and digital rights. Harindrini Corea, legal consultant of Hashtag Generation, shares more about the criminalisation of people’s movements and peaceful protests amid the economic decline in Sri Lanka. Filmmaker and human rights advocate Zayed Siddiki discusses how the state used the legal system to suppress citizens' rights in online and offline spaces.

In this episode of Pretty Good Podcast, research consultant Dr Diani Citra and EngageMedia Digital Rights Program Officer for Indonesia Pradipa Rasidi share key insights from the report “The Techno-politics of Data Justice in Indonesia and the Philippines”. They discuss how civil society, technology groups, and affected communities in both countries understand data justice, as informed by their lived experiences, as well as the paths forward for future research and data governance strategies.

In this episode of Pretty Good Podcast, author, filmmaker, and activist Noor Huda Ismail discusses the strategic online dissemination of extremist ideology in Southeast Asia. He zeroes in on how social media algorithms influence online radicalisation, and how using the same technology can help targeted individuals reintegrate back into society.

Southeast Asia has historically been consumers of technology instead of providers. This often  leaves the region at a disadvantage in adapting to and governing the technologies that it needs for growth, such as artificial intelligence (AI).

In this episode of Pretty Good Podcast, AI researcher Dr. Jun-E Tan expounds on her 2021 research with EngageMedia on AI governance in Southeast Asia, emphasising the importance of contextualising this technology based on what the region needs. Jun-E also discusses the need for Southeast Asian countries to look at existing mechanisms that are within their control, and how these can be used to govern AI technology in ways that protect their people.

Pretty Good Podcast returns in 2022 with the second part of our series on freedom of religion and expression online in Indonesia. In this episode, accomplished Indonesian journalist and writer Feby Indirani shares her experience in advocating for such freedoms in the online space, from continued discussions on her books promoting religious tolerance to her current campaign, “Relax, It’s Just Religion”.

The two-part series is part of the Association for Progressive Communications’ (APC) Challenge project, with the aim of “challenging hate narratives and violations of freedom of religion and expression online in Asia”. 

Pretty Good Podcast caps off its second season with a special two-part series on complexities of freedom of religion and expression online in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim majority and where minorities have historically been the subject of discrimination and hate speech. Our first episode, with academic Leonard Epafras of the Indonesian Consortium of Religious Studies in Yogyakarta, tackles the broader history of religion in the country, as well as zoning in on the youth’s experience of expressing their beliefs online.

With Big Tech monopolies owning many of the online services we regularly use, is there still a space (and an audience) for open source platforms and content outside this mostly proprietary ecosystem? EngageMedia is up for the challenge with the launch of Cinemata, a platform for social and environmental films about the Asia-Pacific. In this podcast episode, we expound on Cinemata with our Executive Director Andrew Lowenthal.